Canada's main stock index was set to open lower on Thursday, a day after falling into correction territory, tracking a retreat in both crude and bullion prices.
The S&P/TSX Composite turned negative in the last hour and lost 52.81 points to conclude Wednesday at 19,387.25.
June futures sagged 0.7% Thursday.
The Canadian dollar erased 0.31 cents to 76.65 cents U.S.
The index is now down 10.2% from its March 29 closing record high. A correction is confirmed when an index closes 10% or more below its record closing level.
Canada's biggest life insurers, Manulife Financial and Sun Life Financial, on Wednesday reported core earnings fell from a year ago as the COVID-19 pandemic took a toll on their Asian earnings, with Manulife also missing estimates.
CIBC cut the target price on Boyd Group Services to $168.00 from $175.00.
Jefferies raised the target price on Cronos Group to $4.30 from $3.70.
CIBC cut the target price on goeasy Ltd to $180.00 from $200.00
ON BAYSTREET
The TSX Venture Exchange caved in 10.29 points, or 1.5%, Wednesday to 700.90.
ON WALLSTREET
Stock futures traded lower Thursday morning as a sell-off continues on Wall Street that’s pushed the S&P 500 to the lowest in more than a year and to the cusp of a bear market.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrials tumbled 223 points, or 0.7%, to 31,520.
Futures for the S&P 500 faded 40.75 points, or 1%, to 3889.50.
Futures for the NASDAQ Composite Index dropped 205 points, or 1.7%, to 11,764.75.
Apple lost 1%, a move that would push the shares into a bear market if it carries through to regular trading. The stock closed down 19.9% off its high Wednesday as Saudi Aramco surpassed the tech giant as the world’s most valuable company.
Other tech stocks, which have been hard-hit by the recent sell-off, continued their descent in the premarket. Meta Platforms and Amazon dipped 1.4% and 2%, respectively.
Disney shares fell more than 4% in premarket trading after reporting mixed earnings results. The media giant reported higher-than-expected streaming subscriber growth, but warned about the Covid impact on parks in Asia.
Rivian Automotive also added 5.3% in the premarket and Beyond Meat slumped more than 26% on the back of quarterly results.
On the economic data front, investors are looking ahead to the latest on jobless claims, slated for release at 8:30 a.m. EDT. Fresh data on the producer price index, which measures prices at the wholesale level, is also on Thursday’s agenda.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 faltered 1.8% Thursday. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng waned 2.2%.
Oil prices slid $1.65 to $104.06 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices handed over $11.00 to $1,842.70 U.S. an ounce.
